


Help (Un)Wanted

by Em_The_Anxious_Dragon



Series: Sanders Hospital [2]
Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders Shorts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Angst, Blackmail, Crushes, Hospital Politics, I tagged this as Teen cause Remus, M/M, Mentions of crime, Not much Prinxiety, Nurses & Nursing, OCD!Remus, Sanders Hospital, hospital au, innuendos, no beta reading we die like the vikings would!, no further explanation needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 06:56:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20004166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Em_The_Anxious_Dragon/pseuds/Em_The_Anxious_Dragon
Summary: Roman adores his job as the communications director at Sanders Hospital. It's more than he ever dreamed he could accomplish. But someone from his past shows up in his office and plans to ruin everything...





	Help (Un)Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of these arcs:  
> Roman and Remus  
> The Nurse's Rally  
> Shadows of St. Gemma's

The first-floor doctor's lounge was often one of the busiest lounges in Sanders Hospital. There was always someone inside- brewing coffee, microwaving lunch, taking a nap on one of the beds stuffed against the wall- someone was doing something when you came in. Roman had tried to catch the room empty in the past, but he never succeeded. There was always someone in there, though the people in the room often made him laugh. He once caught Patton sleeping on one of the beds, half of his body dangling off the mattress. Another time he saw Remy grabbing a box of store-bought powdered donuts, which later appeared in his coffee shop. He wasn't sure if Remy was allowed in the lounges since he wasn't a doctor, but neither was Roman and he had used the lounge's resources many times before. That day, Roman thought he would finally find the room empty, but Virgil had beaten him inside.

The Head of Nursing sat at the off-white table in the center of the room. His dark purple scrubs dangled on his thin body like a mattress draped on a pole. He sat cross-legged on the chair, black Crocs cradling his fabric wrapped feet. Roman noticed he'd redyed his grape colored hair- the color had been faded for the past week. Virgil had his laptop on one side of the table and a worn notebook on the other. He scribbled something into his notebook as Roman closed the door. Virgil looked up, bangs reaching his eyes. He leaned over and pushed out a chair next to him.

"You're really getting into this nurse's rally idea, huh?" Roman chuckled, sliding into the chair.

"Did you get the go-ahead from Thomas?" Virgil asked, stuffing the pen he was using behind his ear.

"He's all for it," Roman chirped. "As long as we jump through the needed hoops to keep everyone safe, he's more than happy to let it go on." Virgil grinned and pulled his laptop closer. Roman couldn't help himself- the emo nurse's smiles were rare enough that when they emerged, they ignited Roman's heart. Smiles like those were part of the reason Roman loved his job.

"So you told me a bit about what this is supposed to be," Roman yawned, stretching his arms. "What's the full story here? Leave nothing out!"

"Do you watch the news?" Virgil asked as he typed something.

"A bit," Roman admitted. "I find it to be a bit too depressing most of the time."

"Yeah, well good thing you didn't watch it when this came onscreen," Virgil huffed. He turned his laptop screen around so Roman could see. It was pulled up to VIN3, the major news channel for Florida news. It was an article by VIN3's leading medical journalist- Terrence Williams. For a moment, Roman was a bit excited- whenever Sanders Hospital released press statements, Roman always preferred talking to Terrence- but his excitement dimmed when he saw the article's title.

' **State government plans to cut funding for Florida nursing education.'**

"Well that's no good," Roman muttered.

"No, duh, Princey," Virgil snapped. Roman rolled his eyes a bit at the nickname. "We already need more nurses, we don't need the government giving the ones we have a half-baked education. This hospital would collapse without nurses. They need just as good an education as the doctors do! Who do they think actually gives patients their medication? Who does most of the hands-on work? What genius came up with this idea?"

"I agree with you, no need to get your Crocs in a twist," Roman interrupted, holding out his hands to stop Virgil's ranting. "Also, Crocs? Really?"

"What?" Virgil grumbled. "They're comfy. My shoes don't matter, this is what matters. We need to get those moronic politicians to realize how stupid this is."

"That's where this rally comes in, right?" Roman asked. He reached for Virgil's notebook. Virgil slammed his hand down on the notebook. Roman pulled his hand back. "Woah, alright there, J.Delightful. Just wanted to see your ideas."

"Alright, just..." Virgil muttered. "Don't touch the notebook. So far I'm thinking we get as many nurses as possible to march on City Hall. Maybe get some speakers up there, chanting..."

"T-shirts!" Roman chirped. Virgil raised an eyebrow. "I'm serious! A good protest has t-shirts! We've got the funds. Oh, and a big banner we can carry at the front of the march. Do you have a march path planned?" Virgil typed something on his laptop and pulled up a map. A purple line snaked across Miami, starting in front of Sanders and ending at City Hall. "Hmm... Virgil, unless your plan is to lead our nurses through the heart of gang territory, I suggest going around this neighborhood." Roman circled a neighborhood on the map. Virgil sighed and pulled his purple line around the area Roman circled. "I'm a bit surprised Mr. Honorary Security Guard didn't know that."

"I'm from Atlanta, what do you want from me," Virgil huffed. "And how do you know-"

"Nate," Roman chuckled. "We have coffee every other Saturday." Virgil rolled his eyes, a tiny smile playing on his lips. "When you get to this street, you're only a couple of blocks away from St. Gemma's. If you want a good impact, you could make a stop there and pick up their nurses." 

"I dunno," Virgil groaned, rubbing his neck. "St. Gemma's doesn't have a good track record with how they treat their nurses..."

"They can't stop people from joining the march if they want to," Roman huffed. "Oh! We could even schedule it around lunchtime so most of them don't have to leave during a shift!"

"So it's 'we' now, is it?" Virgil scoffed, glancing at Roman.

"Why of course!" Roman declared. "I'm just as upset by this news as you! The world needs good nurses!" Roman's phone buzzed in the pocket of his personalized red letter jacket (while it wasn't 'the proper attire of a communications director', Roman always wore it around the chilly hospital). Roman pulled out his phone. It was a text from Dot, the receptionist at the lobby desk.

DARLING DOT (sent 1:53 PM)

_Hey there. I just sent a man up to your office. He said he wanted to speak to you about a job. I know, I know, basic hirings are a bit below your job description, but he had all the proper paperwork and was insistent upon talking to you. I paged your office, but you weren't in._

Roman sighed, frowning softly. He had more important things to do than doing the job of human services!

ME: (sent 1:54 PM)

_It's alright. I'm not one to deny a fan. Thank you for telling me._

"It seems duty calls," Roman sighed, stuffing his phone back in his pocket. "Shoot Thomas an email when you can. I'm sure Patton can help you brainstorm in the meantime!"

"Have fun sucking up to the board," Virgil scoffed, shooting Roman a two-fingered salute. He pulled his laptop onto his lap and started working again. Roman stood, cracking his back, and jogged out of the lounge.

Now, he could have used the elevator like a normal person to get to his office. It was on the top floor, after all. What moron would use the stairs to get from the first floor to the top? Roman, apparently. While others used treadmills and rowing machines to get their daily workouts in, Roman used the jog from the lobby to Entertainment Row. His shiny shoes clopped up the stone staircase as Roman started his climb. He could already feel his face begin to flush by the second floor, blood pumping through his body, heart thudding in his ears. When he reached the fourth floor, a pair of kids with thick wool beanies stumbled out of the door and raced up the staircase alongside Roman. Roman held out his hand, and the kid in the lead gave him an enthusiastic high five. The two kids scurried ahead of him and disappeared into the fifth-floor doorway. Roman didn't question why two children were running around the hospital unsupervised as he jogged on. That was a Patton problem!

By the time he reached the top floor, he'd tied his letter jacket around his waist and could feel some sweat clinging to his forehead. He hoped he hadn't sweated through his white polo. That would be a horrible first impression! Entertainment Row was to the left of the stairwell. Roman could hear people playing something in the patient's lounge from the sounds of the cheering and gunshots. However, Roman turned right, padding down the halls of meeting rooms and offices. If you had told a young Roman he would have an office next to award-winning doctors, he would have laughed. But he traced the Braille on the nameplate for Thomas's office as he walked past, smiling. His office was right next door to the hospital president. He pushed open his door and stopped in the doorway.

His office was about half the size of Thomas's grand room, but it was enough room for Roman to settle in and call the space his own. He didn't have any diplomas hanging on the walls like everyone else (the only one he had was the one from the online school he attended just to keep his crappy old job at a paper company), but he did have posters of his favorite musicals. _Wicked, Hamilton, Les Mis, Newsies_ , they were all on his wall. He'd moved out the bookshelf that came with each office for a worn brown couch. His desk usually lacked much reason to it- He'd move his computer monitor to the left or right of the old wooden desk whenever he pleased and his bowl of Skittles roamed around the desk. His two photos- one of him and his parents, the other of him, Virgil, Logan, and Patton he took one day out of boredom- lacked a home. His office supplies were either scattered around in his desk drawers or scattered around the table as he made tiny origami from the post-it notes that would defend his landline phone. The nameplate, bearing the name Roman Prince in shiny letters was stuck to the desk, making it the only thing that made sense. But now, there was an unfamiliar order on the desktop. The monitor was nestled neatly in the middle of the desk. There was a photo on either side of the monitor. His origami birds sat in neat rows on the edge of the desk. The two chairs facing the desk were pushed in. Not to mention someone was sitting in Roman's chair.

The man wore a green leather jacket over a stained black t-shirt. He had a silky, bright lime scarf wrapped around his neck like a French fashionista. Despite his young age, the man's dark ginger hair was already graying at the front like Rogue from X-Men. He rested his pirate-style black boots on Roman's desktop and his jeans were covered in holes. There was a sickly pink tinge to the skin around the man's eyes that only stood out against his pale skin. His mustache would have been proper in the 1900's, but now it looked cartoonishly evil. The way he was now, it would have been very difficult for anyone to figure out how the man knew Roman. But with a bit of a makeover, it wouldn't take long for people to recognize Roman's twin brother.

"Boo," Remus said, smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Roman slammed his door shut.

"Remus!" Roman hissed. "Get- get off that!" Roman darted across his office and grabbed Remus's arm. Remus ducked underneath Roman and crawled to the couch- literally, he crab-walked like a possessed child in a horror movie onto Roman's couch. He sat on the couch's arm, one leg dangling off the side.

"Well that's a rude welcome," Remus huffed. Roman stomped to the couch.

"What are you doing here?" Roman snapped.

"I work here!" Remus chirped. "Unofficially, for now."

"Uh, no," Roman said. "You don't work here, officially or unofficially, you knock-off Heather Duke. Why are you in my office?!"

"I thought it was high time I dropped in on you!" Remus sighed, leaning his head on his hand, elbow to knee. "Isn't this what brothers do? Come see each other at work? That's not rhetorical, I'm actually asking."

"You texted me last week," Roman huffed.

"I know, but when it comes to giving you a good old fashioned hug..." Remus sighed. "Our last meeting was at Christmas last year! Thank you for the sweater, by the way. I've done many things in it."

"Ew," Roman groaned, regretting many of his life choices, one of which was not devouring his brother in the womb (an event that Logan once described to Roman which temporarily scarred him). "I am _not_ hugging you." Last time the two hugged, Remus put Roman in a choke-hold and didn't let go for a minute and a half.

"So this is your office," Remus purred, hopping off the couch. He strolled around the room, hands behind his back. "Good job, brother! I should have visited sooner!"

"Please don't tell me you're the person Dot referred to," Roman groaned.

"That's me!" Remus chirped, spinning on one heel to face Roman. "I would like to get paid, please. I won't make you pay for the couple of months I've already worked, but it would be nice to start earning a paycheck."

"Couple of-" Roman stammered. "What?!"

"For my services as a janitor," Remus declared, giving Roman a little bow.

"I thought you had a job already," Roman huffed, crossing his arms. "Unless you got fired again."

"No, no, no, I still have my other job," Remus said, shaking his head and hands like he was denying another serving of cake. "But since I clean two hospitals, I'd like to be paid for both!" 

"You are not getting a job here," Roman snapped. "Remus, you may be my brother, but my family duty has its limits. I'm sorry, but I need you to leave." He pointed towards the door.

"Why can't I work here?" Remus asked, turning and admiring the room. "I need the money. Are you afraid I'd do something bad?" Remus looked over his shoulder to Roman. "Or are you afraid to let your friends know about me?" Roman's fingers dug into the sleeves of his leather jacket.

"I'm calling security," Roman huffed. He reached for his landline. Remus's pale, boney hand grabbed Roman's hand and pulled his back. Roman spun around, now standing face to face with Remus, his hand gripped between them.

"Imagine with me," Remus purred as Roman tried to pull his hand out of Remus's tight grip. He tried to pry Remus's fingers off, but Remus's other hand grabbed his free hand. "Your boss is in his office, doing paperwork or whatever pretty folk he pleases-"

"Ew!" Roman groaned.

"-and suddenly, he gets an email from deodoranteater73," Remus explained. "with the caption 'Roman Prince has lied to you!' He opens the email and sees everything he needs to know about you and me! Including-"

"Remus, you can't!" Roman begged.

"I easily can," Remus said. "Your boss deserves the truth." Remus let go of Roman's hands. His grip left red impressions on Roman's hands.

"I've already been punished for what happened!" Roman begged, nursing his sore hands. "You-you're better off now too, right? I mean, last month you left me a voicemail in the middle of the night talking about how happy you were!"

"To be fair, there's a solid week of that month I only remember in vague gestures," Remus admitted, flourishing his hands in the air.

"Why bring up the past?" Roman stammered. "Why wreck my life?"

"Wreck your life?" Remus said, hand to his chest, pinkish eyes softening for a moment. "No no no, is that why you think I'm here? I'm happy for you!"

"You just threatened to expose me!" Roman snapped.

"If I wanted to expose you, it would be a lot more hands-on," Remus giggled.

"You know what I mean!" Roman shouted. He froze, looking to the door. Did anyone hear that?

"Roman, Roman, Roman," Remus sighed, shaking his head. He walked back to the couch and sat down like a normal human being. "I hate the thought of you losing your job. It keeps me up at night thinking of it. You know me, you know I'm telling you the truth here. I may be a demented man, but even I despise some of my ideas. But the issue here is, I need money. I'm afraid my job isn't paying me enough to keep up with my rent. Do you want me to live on the street like an animal?"

"Let's be frank, you're Oscar the Grouch's long lost cousin," Roman grumbled, crossing his arms again.

"True, true," Remus admitted, nodding. "I'm going to keep cleaning this place whether you want me to or not. Frankly, it's a wonderful job for stinky fellows like me." Remus wiggled his eyebrows. "I just need some cash."

"Then get a job at McDonald's," Roman huffed. "Take up professional dumpster diving. You can't work here."

"I prefer to keep my dumpster diving as a hobby, thank you," Remus chuckled."You know what? As my brother, I'll make you a deal. You don't need to pay me for my cleaning services. It's an honor I'm more than happy to give to this hospital. Simply send me some cash every couple of weeks to help make my rent, and we can go about our lives as normal." Remus's face darkened, his Cheshire smile returning. An instinctive fear stirred in Roman's guts. "Neither of us want to ruin a good thing." Roman tightened his crossed arms. 

"Are you blackmailing me?" Roman asked.

"You could call it that," Remus sighed, standing. "I'll give you some time to think it over. I'll treat you to some funny photos I found online when I get home. There's this great website I found full of old serial killer case files-"

"Out," Roman groaned. "Please."

"I'm done, I'm done," Remus laughed, walking to the door. "Make sure not to think about dismembered dog tails while I'm gone! Byeeeeeee!" Remus grabbed the doorknob and swung the door open. Virgil stood outside the room, hand raised, ready to knock. He froze in the doorway, staring at Remus with giant eyes.

"Remus?" Virgil gasped, eyes frozen.

"My dear old friend!" Remus exclaimed. He wrapped his arms around Virgil. The nurse yelped and squirmed away from Remus. He backed into the room and shot Roman an unsettling glare. "It's so nice to see you! I can’t believe I forgot you worked here!”

”This is who you ditched me for?” Virgil muttered, pointing a hand at Remus.

”I’m afraid I must be off,” Remus sighed. “I have many important things to do, important people to do. It was wonderful seeing you again, Virge. It was just like old times.” With that, Remus slipped out of the office, closing the door, leaving Roman and Virgil with his Cheshire smile. Roman collapsed onto his chair with a deep sigh.

”Why was he here?” Virgil snapped, pointing to the door. Roman thought carefully about his answer in the few seconds he had to answer. Did Virgil not know Roman was Remus's twin? Maybe his secret was still safe.

”He was asking for a job,” Roman sighed, frowning. “Don’t worry, I turned his resume down quickly.”

”Yeah, you might want to call security to make sure he leaves the hospital,” Virgil muttered. He took a seat on Roman’s couch.

”How do you know the man?” Roman asked as he pulled out his phone to text Nate.

”He...” Virgil sighed, tugging on the edges of his scrubs. “He was a janitor where I used to work. At... St. Gemma's. He always freaked me out."

"I can understand that," Roman scoffed. "I mean, I only met him once and I was half-way to calling Nate on him!" Roman prayed his acting skills wouldn't fail him. "Nevermind the crazy man, I assume you came up here for something. Unless you just missed me." Roman ruffled his hair and flashed Virgil a grin.

"Yeah, right," Virgil scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I wanted to show you something." Virgil reached into the pocket of his scrubs. He pulled out a folded piece of lined paper and tossed it at Roman's head. The paper fell onto his desk. Roman unfolded the paper. It was a sketch of a t-shirt. Inside the t-shirt was a stethoscope surrounded by the words 'Educated nurses save lives'. "Concept art for the t-shirt."

"I knew you'd come around!" Roman laughed, pushing down the pool of strange emotions his brother unearthed.

\--------------------------------------

The window of Roman's office looked out over the Miami skyline. It wasn't a great window, barely big enough to crawl through to get to the fire escape outside, but it was enough to see the gorgeous view. The pulse of the city's night-time heroes raced through the blinking lights that covered the world. The city lit the clouds floating overhead that blocked the half-moon. The faint sounds of ambulances roaring into the ED broke through the window. Roman leaned on the windowsill, his red letter jacket pulled tight around his shoulders. He should have gone home an hour ago. He wasn't like Patton or Logan or Virgil- he didn't have to work through the night. He didn't work a 9 to 5 job, but his hours didn't extend far into the inky abyss of the night.

He leaned his phone against the warm glass. The harsh light glaring from his screen kept him alert. He scrolled through Instagram, but he wasn't really looking at anything. His thoughts were completely focused on his brother. Remus was often a man of empty threats, but he didn't lie. That was something Roman never understood about his brother- while he did so many horrid things, he never lied about doing any of it. What Roman wasn't sure of was whether his little story about sending Thomas an email was one of his empty threats. He just wanted cash. Was it worth losing Roman's job over? He couldn't give Remus a job in the hospital, could he? No. It wasn't safe for Remus to be around patients. Roman was smart enough to know that.

Roman wasn't poor anymore. Personally, he wouldn't describe himself as rich, but he didn't have student loans to pay off like his friends, and his job paid more than enough for Roman to live a comfortable life. Didn't family help each other through hard times? What was a bit of cash every couple of weeks compared to what Roman made? Remus's rent couldn't cost that much. It was a favor for his brother. But Roman knew better. He'd seen plenty of shows where someone was being blackmailed. The blackmailer would get greedy and demand more and more from their victim, and the victim would comply. Roman used to think they were stupid for getting blackmailed in the first place. He didn't think that anymore.

He took his phone off the windowsill and walked to his couch. The lights were off in his office, with only a sliver of light escaping from the hallway. The light of Roman's phone illuminated his uncharacteristically grave face. He pulled up his contact list and sent a text he knew he would regret.

ME: (sent 9:22 PM)

_How much money do you need?_

It only took a few minutes for Roman to get a response.

REMUS: (sent 9:26 PM)

_I knew you'd come around! :D_

Oh boy.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll talk more about Vocal Intrastate News Channel 3 (VIN3) at a later point.  
> I was a bit nervous about writing Remus. I wanted to give him OCD since a major element of the disorder is intrusive thoughts. However, Remus seemed to enjoy the thoughts he came up with, while people with OCD don't like those thoughts. Human Remus most likely has some other sort of disorder on top of the OCD, one I would be unable to diagnose. For his OCD, I imagine that the thoughts he dislikes tends to be those along the line of magical thinking- thinking about things he doesn't want to occur will make them occur. He has those other violent thoughts too, but sometimes he enjoys those thoughts- which terrifies him even more. I hope I did a good job.  
> Anyway, thanks for reading, guys! I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Want to ask Roman, Remus, or Virgil some questions? Check out the official blog for the Sanders Hospital AU!  
> https://sandershospitalau.tumblr.com


End file.
